Edited by Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane

Debates over teacher quality are among the most heated exchanges in the education reform arena. But while scholars and policy makers grapple with questions about teacher preparation, compensation, and evaluation, the role of teachers is changing. In schools across the country, educators are experimenting with new models for recruiting, training, and supporting teachers, and are innovating strategies for deploying their talents through differentiated roles and the use of technology. Most of the policy measures currently under consideration, however, are designed with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Teacher Quality 2.0 argues that much cutting-edge work in teacher quality is happening in nontraditional environments such as online or hybrid learning, where teacher roles can be very specialized, or in charter schools that are experimenting with new approaches to staffing. The editors examine fruitful innovations taking place on the margins of the traditional education sector that promise to improve teacher quality in a more strategic way. More flexible approaches to teacher quality, the editors caution, require vigilance against backward-looking policies that “bake in” traditional assumptions about teachers’ roles.

The editors of this provocative volume have convened a diverse array of contributors to look ahead to explore these emerging practices and investigate how current research and policy initiatives may affect the next generation of innovation in teaching.

Praise

Recent changes in the state and federal stance toward teaching have been nothing short of a policy revolution. But revolutions in policy do not solve all of the underlying problems, and they create new problems of their own. Teacher Quality 2.0 provides useful insights and new ideas on where the teacher quality revolution needs to go next.
— Douglas N. Harris, associate professor of economics and director of The Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, Tulane University

Everyone talks about education reform, but systemic thinking about reform is lacking—until now. Teacher Quality 2.0 provides rich historical context, pulls together successful elements of current reforms, and then pioneers new, systemic ways of thinking about the third rail of education—teacher quality. A must-read for anyone serious about real and lasting reform for all kids.
— Rick Ogston, CEO, Carpe Diem Schools